Research Cluster Best Student Paper Awards
Several Canadian Sociological Association Research Clusters adjudicate Best Student Paper Awards as part of our annual Conference programming.
Research Clusters may select up to 3 recipients in a specific year based on student level (Undergraduate, MA, or PhD). All recipients will receive a certificate and ‘Commit Sociology’ T-shirt (while supplies last). Each cluster may select only 1 recipient in a specific year to receive a $100 prize sponsored by the Canadian Sociological Association.
2025 Award Information will be posted by January 27.
Equity Statement:
The CSA is committed to the values and principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization (refer to our Operating Standards and Principles on Equity). We recognize and honour the intersectionality of equity-based identities and therefore invite and encourage the nomination (including self-nomination) of members from marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, persons who identify as women, and/or LGBTQ2+.
| Year | Research Cluster | Recipient | Paper |
| 2024 | Criminology and Law | Roberta S. Pamplona, University of Toronto | Feminist Repurposing: Activism Against Violence, State Incorporation, and the Feminicídio Law in Brazil |
| 2024 | Economic Sociology | Zhen Wang, University of Toronto | A Matter of Size: Varied Experiences of Deregulation |
| 2024 | Internet, Technology, and Digital Sociology | Amber-Lee Varadi, York University | "TikTok isn’t a hobby”: Media(ted) connections, identities, and leisure among contemporary high school-aged youth |
| 2024 | Internet, Technology, and Digital Sociology - Honourable Mention | Hongshu Wang, Western University | Vegetarianism and anti-Vegetarianism Frames in Chinese-Language Social Media |
| 2024 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Rezvaneh Erfani Hossein Pour, University of Alberta | Intersectional ecofeminisms: Fighting for a “safe space” in climate activist circles in Istanbul and Cairo |
| 2024 | Sociology of Culture | Michael Slinger, University of Ottawa | Medicalization Through the Re-Definition of Problems and Solutions |
| 2024 | Sociology of Education | Anne-Marie Bresee, Western University | Student care: The onus on women professors |
| 2024 | Sociology of Health | Michael Slinger, University of Ottawa | The Many Faces of Mental Health: How Practitioners Enact Mental Health in Psychotherapy |
| 2024 | Sociology of Migration | Tori Shucheng Yang, University of British Columbia |
Gendering Queer Migration: Evidence from Chinese LGBTQ+ Migrants |
| 2024 | Work, Professions, and Occupations | Manlin Cai, University of British Columbia | Workplace Authority in China: Gender, Parenthood, and Work Sectors |
| 2024 | Work, Professions, and Occupations | Nicole Jokinen-Hurl, Trent University | Contractors, or Employees? A Deep-dive into the Identity and Structure of Gig Economy Workers |
| 2023 | Criminology and Law | Mariana Pinzon-Caicedo, Simon Fraser University | Victim’s speech-acts in Transitional Justice Systems |
| 2023 | Feminist Sociology | Mary-Catherine Crowshaw, York University | The Invisibility of Sexual Violence in Sectarian Conflicts: Lessons from Northern Ireland |
| 2023 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Gabriel Lévesque, McGill University | Toxic Substance Regulations and the Structuration of Interdependent Policy Networks |
| 2023 | Sociology of Health | Anna Kuznetsov, University of Toronto | Breastfeeding in Sociology: Overlooked and Misunderstood |
| 2023 | Sociology of Knowledge | Sarah Vanderveer, York University | Decolonizing Epistemologies through Postcolonial and Indigenous Theorizing |
| 2023 | Sociology of Mental Health | Loa Gordon, McMaster University | The Imaginarium of Self-care: Speculative Futures of Hope for Mental Health |
| 2023 | Sociology of Migration | Franka Zlatic, University of Nottingham | Leaving, coming and ‘going back’: How caring responsibilities create volatile futures for migrants |
| 2022 | Criminology and Law | Helen Kosc, University of Oxford | Freedom Amidst Crisis: Experiences of UK Inmate Re-entry during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and Implications for Support Networks and Services |
| 2022 | Internet, Technology and Digital Sociology | Dilshan L. Fernando, University of Guelph | The Limited Use of ICT Solutions for Peripheral Inaccessibilities Faced by People with Disabilities in Myanmar |
| 2022 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Max Chewinski, University of British Columbia | “It became a battlefield”: Emotions, Polarization, and Disengagement from Environmental Deliberations |
| 2022 | Sociology of Education | Zahide Alaca, University of Toronto | Within-Student Stability in Learning Trajectories: Summer after Summer, do the Same Students Fall Further and Further Behind in Math and Reading? |
| 2022 | Sociology of Mental Health | Sanam Vaghefi, University of Victoria | Refugee Mental Health during the Asylum Waiting Process: A Qualitative Study of Turkish and Canadian Contexts |
| 2022 | Sociology of Migration | Max Stick, McMaster University | Gendered Perspectives of Financial Control: Source-Country Gender Inequality and Financial Decisions of Immigrant Couples |
| 2022 | Urban Sociology | Andrew Crosby, Carleton University | A “Framework for Social Destruction”: Community Well-being and Domicide in the Liveable City. |
| 2021 | Animals in Society | Yasmin Koop-Monteiro, University of British Columbia | Metabolic Rifts and Alienation in the Animal Agriculture Industry |
| 2021 | Comparative and Historical Sociology | Andrew Crosby, Carleton University | Policing Indigenous Dissent in the Settler Colonial Present |
| 2021 | Comparative and Historical Sociology | Umaima Miraj, University of Toronto | For a Revolutionary Feminist World-Systems Analysis: The Case of Ghadar |
| 2021 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Kristen Bass, University of Toronto | Étudiants en grève: Cultural Repertoires of Labour Organizing in the 2012 Quebec Student Strikes |
| 2021 | Sociology of Disability | Danielle Landry, York University | |
| 2021 | Sociology of Disability - Honourable Mention | Megan Linton, Carleton University | |
| 2021 | Work, Professions and Occupations | Sareh Nazari, University of Saskatchewan | Employment income gap in the Canadian labour market: Intersection of gender, religion, and visible minority status |
| 2020 | Sociology of Education | Emerson LaCroix, University of Guelph | Institutional Culture of Delegating & Decentralizing Control: A Case of Experiential Education in Ontario Higher Education |
| 2019 | Comparative and Historical Sociology | Ioana Sendroiu, University of Toronto | Failures of imagination in comparative perspective |
| 2019 | Comparative and Historical Sociology | Abdullah Shahid, Cornell University | Fictional Endogeneity and Market Formation: the case of Islamic finance 1963 - 2017 |
| 2019 | Economic Sociology | Anouck Alary, Université de Montréal | Family-directed cord blood banking and the (re)privatization of social reproduction. |
| 2019 | Economic Sociology | Ningzi Li, University of Colorado & Abdullah Shahid, Cornell University | Liberalization and Legitimacy: Relationship Formation in A Newly Liberalized Market |
| 2019 | Sociology of Development | Jeffrey Swindle, University of Michigan | Exposure to Global Cultural Scripts through Media and Attitudes toward Violence against Women |
| 2019 | Sociology of Education | Rod Missaghian, University of Waterloo | University dreams are made of these: exploring the role of social capital in the postsecondary decision-making process of a group of at-risk Canadian students |
| 2019 | Violence and Society | Lily Ivanova, University of British Columbia | Teaching Empathy, Teaching Politics: The Cultural Limitations of ‘Never Again’ in Canadian Education about Genocide |
| 2019 | Work, Professions and Occupations | Philip Badawy and Scott Schieman, University of Toronto | With Greater Power comes Greater Stress? Supervisor Support and the Role Strains Associated with Job Authority |
| 2019 | Work, Professions and Occupations | Katelyn D. Mitri, University of Western Ontario | Does Higher Education Make a Difference? The Influence of Educational Attainment on Women’s and Men’s Employment Outcomes |
| 2017 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Anna Slavina, University of Toronto | Cultures of Engagement: Cross-National Differences in Political Action Repertoires |
| 2016 | Environmental Sociology - PhD | Georgia Piggot, University of British Columbia | Getting to Zero: Organizational Responses to British Columbia’s Carbon Neutral Policy |
| 2016 | Environmental Sociology - MA | Amanda Evans, University of Alberta | An Ecological Habitus on the Oilfield? Climate Change and Green Technology Perspectives in the Lifestyles of Alberta Oilsands Mine Workers |
| 2016 | Political Sociology and Social Movements | Max Chewinski, University of British Columbia | Knots that Strain & Threads that Bind: NGO-Grassroots Dynamics in the Movement Web Challenging Canadian Resource Extractivism |
| 2015 | Environmental Sociology - PhD | Mihai Sarbu, University of Ottawa | (Re)defining Climate Change as a Cultural Phenomenon |
| 2015 | Environmental Sociology - MA | Marianne Corriveau, University of Ottawa | Idea-driven environmental mobility: The Case of Goletta Verde |
| 2015 | Sociology of Development | Amm Quamruzzaman, McGill University | Economic Growth or Good Governance: What is More Important to Reduce Poverty and Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa? |
| 2015 | Work, Professions and Occupations | Eugena Kwon | Exploring factors influencing career and family choices of female medical students and residents |
| 2014 | Environmental Sociology - PhD | Mihai Sarbu, University of Ottawa | Instrumental Rationality and Climate Change |
| 2014 | Environmental Sociology - MA | Max Chewinski, Carleton University | Whither the State? Globalization, Citizenship Regimes, and Canadian Mining as Nation-Building |